Vore
In Quake, a Vore or Shalrath is a spideresque creature with three legs, two arms and a head with no visible eyes and a huge, lipless mouth of many teeth framed by two pincer-like appendages. It generates exploding, violet spiked pods that home in on somebody. These balls cause major damage and will constantly chase until they hit something. The Vore can be recognized by the otherworldly ululating noise it makes as soon as it notices its enemy. The Vore makes its first appearance at the very end of E2M6 as a boss, and appears infrequently throughout the rest of the game. Weapons Fire Pod The Vore has only one attack, but it is particularly powerful. It unleashes a violet firepod that homes in on its target by matching its motions almost precisely. It moves fairly quickly and is nearly impossible to outrun; it is also good at maneuvering corners if the angle is right. At a distance, the pod can be tricked into hitting a wall if the player takes cover quickly. But if it gets too close to the player, then it is very difficult to throw off and contact is a near certainty. The pod does 40 points of damage on impact, which is enough to cause instant death if the player is low on armor and health. Strategies *The Vore is one of the toughest Enemies in the game. Its homing ball does significant damage upon impact, and will chase your movement almost precisely until it hits something. It isn't necessarily an easy enemy to kill, either; at 400 health points, the Vore's maximum health is second only to the Shambler. *Alone, the Vore can be challenging to take out. Try to keep a safe distance so that you have time to run when it throws a pod. When it does, begin running and make sure to take sharp turns around corners, which often causes them to make contact with the wall and explode. The best strategy is to find somewhere in which you can take cover, like a pillar. Another idea is to enter a teleporter while the projectile is chasing you. After it launches a pod, hide immediately so that it will not hit you. When you hear it explode, re-emerge and attack the Vore with Double-Barrelled Shotgun. Repeat this process until it's dead. *Unless you have the Pentagram of Protection at the time of encounter, fighting a Vore at close range must be avoided at all costs. Unlike most other enemies, whose attacks can be dodged, the pod will never miss. This is made lethal by the rate at which the pods are launched; you are almost guaranteed to receive high damage before you kill the Vore, especially without a Super Nailgun or Thunderbolt. *If there is a lot of room and the Vore is the only enemy, then it is possible to run around in a circle and cause its pod to be redirected against itself. There are very few scenarios where this strategy is even feasible, and it goes without saying that there is an exceptional risk factor involved. Another possible trick is to have the Vore move up against an object or some other obstruction and have it fire the pod, thereby causing it to explode almost instantly and inducing splash damage against the creature itself. Although time consuming, this option is not as dangerous as having a pod chase you around to intersect with the Vore. Either method helps to conserve ammunition. *In the company of other enemies, the Vore's pod is quite useful for causing monster in-fights. Once the pod has launched, maneuver yourself so that it can intersect with another enemy, provoking them into fighting the Vore. In most circumstances, the Vore will succeed in killing whatever monster it has provoked, but not without taking substantial damage beforehand. This is risky however, and if you'd prefer not to cause yourself a potential 40 points of damage to your health, you might want to lure other enemies into another area so they will not serve as a distraction for when you confront the Vore directly. Aside from Zombies, they are the slowest creatures in the game, which makes it easy to take on other enemies elsewhere beforehand. *If you're fighting off multiple Vores, try to make it so that you're only facing one at a time (such as in E4M7). If you take all of them on at once, you'll have to avoid multiple pods, which can be lethal if they make impact at the same time (especially if there are no health pickups nearby). In most areas where you fight multiple Vores (with the exception of the end of E3M6), you can find a power-up that will make it easier to either kill or even avoid them. *The Vore is one of the five enemies in the game that are capable of gibbing a Zombie (the other being the Shambler, Wrath, Spike Mine's explosion, and Spawn's death explosion). Death Messages *''"Player" was exploded by a Vore'' *''"Player" was finished by Shalrath'' (Beta3 only) Appearances * E2M6: The Dismal Oubliette * E3M6: Chambers of Torment * E3M7: The Haunted Halls * E4M2: The Tower of Despair * E4M5: Hell's Atrium * E4M6: The Pain Maze * E4M7: Azure Agony * E4M8: The Nameless City (Normal) * Shub-Niggurath's Pit * HIP2M1: Ancient Realms * HIP2M2: The Black Cathedral * HIP2M3: The Catacombs * HIP2M4: The Crypt * HIP2M5: Mortum's Keep * HIP3M1: Tur Torment * HIP3M2: Pandemonium * HIP3M3: Limbo * HIP3M4: The Gauntlet * HIPDM1: The Edge of Oblivion * R1M5: Towers of Wrath * R1M6: Temple of Pain * R2M6: Blood Sacrifice Trivia *According to John Romero, the name Shalrath came from John C.’s D&D campaign.‘''In development you always have other names that originally were used but before release are changed to something more appropriate. The name Shalrath was one from, I believe, John C.'s D&D campaign. Likewise, the Scrag was originally called a Wizard. At the end it didn't do many wizardly things so we changed the name. If the creature *did* do some interesting magic the name would have been great to keep as it would have been one of the most unsettling wizards that anyone could have imagined.’ (See the reference below.) *Also according to Romero, Vores lack eyes because the fantastic realms that they’re native to are dim, humid, and horrific, thus eyes would be unnecessary.Interview with John Romero where he also stated, ‘''You're right about the eyes - most of the monsters don't have them. The world of Quake is dark, wet and scary and they didn't really need em. The Shambler is supposed to have a shaggy coat.’ *The concept of a half-humanoid, half-spider monster was reused in Doom 3 with the Vagary, an early boss monster who has telekinetic powers. *"Vore" comes from the Latin term Vorare, '''To Devour. It's used as a suffix to indicate an animal's diet (Carnivore, Herbivore and Omnivore). Qtest In Qtest, a completely different model for the Vore called '''Shalrath can be found in the .pak files. The only relation it has with the final Vore's model is that they have similar heads. This name is also used for the .mdl files in the final game. The model has complete animations, but it lacks its textures. It appears to be impossible to summon this creature. Beta3 In Beta3, the Vore's projectiles share the model of the Lavaballs and those that Chthon launches (rather than spiky purple orbs). Sounds Vore being aware of its opponent Vore being aware of its threat Vore assailing somebody Vore being injured Vore getting killed Gallery Vore fire.jpg|Mid-Fire Vore corpse.jpg|Corpse Vore gibbed head.jpg|Gibbed Head References Category:Quake enemies Category:Quake bosses